King’s Charter rules for Buick and Appleby

Charlie Appleby and William Buick picked up where they left off on day two of the July Festival at Newmarket, with King’s Charter swooping late to land the £100,000 Bet365 Handicap.

Following a Thursday treble for the Moulton Paddocks team that featured Buick’s 2,000th winner in Britain, King’s Charter was the 9-4 favourite for Friday’s curtain-raiser, having opened his account at the third attempt on his first start as a three-year-old at Doncaster last month.

Charlie Johnston’s Marhaba Ghaiyyath kicked for home a long way out and proved a tough adversary, but Buick timed his challenge to perfection aboard King’s Charter, who just proved speedier in the finish and passed the post with three-quarters of a length in hand.

Appleby said: “We felt the step up to 10 furlongs would hopefully see a bit of improvement, which was going to be needed at a meeting like this, and he’s duly obliged with that.

“I’d probably say he’s still a handicapping type at the moment. We’ll see what the handicapper does and see where he lines up with (going to) Meydan.

“It’s that time of year – from July onwards we start to put our team together for Meydan. Whether he’s a horse that fits that bill, we’ll see.

“Is he a Group horse? Probably not really, but he’s a nice handicapper.”

Appleby and Buick were denied a double in the other £100,000 handicap on the card after Endless Victory was reeled in by Oneforthegutter (12-1) in the bet365 Trophy.

The winner would have been an unlucky loser with Silvestre de Sousa all locked up with nowhere to go at one stage – but when he brought Ian Williams’ charge, who had been second in the race last year, down the centre of the track he quickened up to win by half a length.

Williams also saddled the third home Real Dream, while his 11-4 favourite Dancing In Paris weakened into eighth place after making much of the running.

The trainer said: “Unfortunately Dancing In Paris got very keen with Marco (Ghiani) and I was actually tearing my hair out and not really noticing the other two were creeping into the race.

“Oneforthegutter is an amazing little horse. We bought him as a breeze-up, he won his first start as a two-year-old and he’s still going in one-mile-six-furlong races now at six.

“He was a fantastic third in the Ebor last year, the problem is the handicapper is probably going to put up a few pounds now and I didn’t think he was particularly well handicapped coming into today.

“Things will only get tougher for him, but there’s plenty of opportunities for these horses and we’ll make the most of them.”

David O’Meara and Rossa Ryan combined to land the Dubai Racing Club Handicap with Leadman (12-1), with the concluding debenhams.com Handicap going to 17-2 chance Emperor Spirit, trained by Michael Keady and ridden by Marco Ghiani.